Bush vetoes bill banning waterboarding

Bush vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have aided in preventing attacks, reported CNN.com

â€śThe bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror,â€? Bush said on his weekly radio broadcast, â€śso today I vetoed it.â€?

Bush said that this was no time for Congress to â€śabandonâ€? practices of interrogation that have helped keep America safe. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California who is for the legislation said that torture techniques like that of waterboarding is considered a â€śblack markâ€? against the United States and that she will not stop fighting for this bill until it becomes a law.

The bill wants to limit the CIA interrogators to 19 techniques used by military questioners and Bush rebuked by saying that the CIA uses â€śspecialized interrogation proceduresâ€? that the military doesnâ€™t need.

Bush believes that restricting CIA interrogators to the same practices used by the military will be useless because each department is performing different roles. The military are to question, â€ślawful combatants captured on the battlefieldâ€?. While the CIA have to deal with â€śhardened terroristâ€? who might already know of plans of attack in the United States.

The techniques that have been prohibited include hooding prisoners or putting duct tape across their eyes, stripping them naked, forcing them to perform or mimic sexual acts, or beating, electrocuting, burning, reports CNN.com

President Bushâ€™s veto will be one of the most shameful acts of his presidency,â€? said Sen. Edwards Kennedy, D-Massachusetts.

Waterboarding is still considered one of the most controversial interrogation techniques used by the CIA. It was prohibited in 2006 but is not available for use by CIA interrogators. It can only be used with approval on a case-to-case basis by the president after consultation with the attorney general and the intelligence community.